Hayes v. Howard v. Battier at PF: Why Start Howard?

However it is different in the past when the WC was loaded will superstar 4s. 2-4 years ago to advance in the WC you had to face guys like Duncan, Garnett, Malone, Wallace, McDyess, etc. These were power 4s.

Now to advance in the WC the likely 4s you have to face are Dirk, Josh Howard, Horry (or whomever other 4 the Spurs can find), Diaw, Shawn Marion, and maybe Odom, AK47, and Brand (Duncan and Gasol now will play mostly at C). Further in the finals you probably have to face 4s like Haslem, Walker, or maybe Sheed (older more stand still version), Gooden or Marshall.

Without question in my mind Battier is the better match-up against MOST of the elite teams primary PFs in todays NBA than either Howard or Hayes. It is nice to have the latter when you do face the Brands, or the few times players like Duncan, Gasol and J Oneal don't have to play their team's center spot and can man the 4 spot, but generally the best Rocket team versus elite opponents will have Battier at the 4 against their athletic 4s. Even on Dirk, though a 7 footer, the long quick guy (Haslem, Posey, Marion, Diaw, Bruce Bowen) has been shown to be the better match-up than a bigger slower PF. Even when we played Dirk 2 years ago it was Tmac who provided our best shot.

One of the great things about Battier is he can pretty much guard the opponents best forward be it a PF or SF, and at times even a big SG. That frees up Tmac to generally get the easier job on defense and focus on offense. There are just a few teams/few situations (like versus Brand/Kaman front line) where I don't want to end the game with Yao, Battier and Tmac being the frontline.

 

you forgot Webber. Brand too, if his team could make the playoffs.